In first-person narration, Riley recalls happy times as the focal point for all of his “parents’” attention, followed by the chaotic aftermath of family additions: first one child, then another, then a new puppy. While each addition is disruptive, Riley learns to take it all in stride and celebrate the positive. The babies drop scraps of food from their high chairs and the new puppy is a great […]
When protagonist Jeffrey Porter’s father Randall suddenly goes missing, he moves his wife and children back to the family ranch in Santa Cruz to investigate. While searching the cellar, Porter uncovers a portal to the past where he meets the Kimbralls, the family who lived on the ranch in 1870. Porter and the Kimbrall patriarch Augustus embark on a mission to find Randall but the unpredictability of time travel and the portal itself make this a perilous pursuit. When they hear rumors that Randall is involved in labor disputes that have angered local farmers, they realize his life is in […]
Planet Tome Reborn by Helene Pilibosian is a continuation of the story begun in her earlier work A New Orchid Myth. In this volume, Amethyst, Granite, and their daughter Taralee travel to Earth from their home planet Tome. Taralee meets and marries Ted in Boston, and the four protagonists embark on a mission to collect plant life and technology vital to Tome’s continued prosperity.
A hybrid of sci/fi fantasy and lyric poetry, the plot is a bit difficult to tease out from Pilibosian’s figurative lexicon and it is not always clear who is speaking or who is being referred […]